1. Chapter 1

He was exactly as I remembered – bronze hair gleaming in the lighting and the same mesmerising black eyes – which naturally had my heart beating a few times faster than it usually did. His hands were tucked in his pockets and he was looking at me – scrutinising me would be more appropriate. His eyes ran up and down my body, as though he was committing every single detail of me to his memory. Why had he come back? Didn’t he do enough damage already?

He had left me, leaving me broken and ripped apart beyond any repair. All these months without him were worst than being dead and sentenced to an eternity in hell – wait a minute, it was hell. Now he was back, and it was as if those months had not passed at all, like it was nothing but a nightmare. I had seen this scene so many times in my head, but all the while never believing it would ever come true – and not it was a reality instead of being a figment of my own vivid imagination like I wished it was. What was most confusing and scary was that even though he left me and put me through so much pain and hurt, I was still in love with him. Fate hated me.

I could see the evident pain in his eyes and he opened his mouth, only to close it back again. I completely understood how he was feeling? After causing all these damage, what was there to say now? Anger flared up unexpectedly in me. This was unusual – usually, I was a remarkably calm person. All the months of hurt, frustration and pure anguish channelled together and turned into raw, pulsing anger. I shoved my hands into my pockets too – to prevent myself from hitting something, or rather, someone. I forced a deep breath.

What was there to explain about breaking promises? It was broken – and that was it. There was nothing to piece the broken pieces back together again. And that simple sentence of three words broke through all the perfectly strong carved out walls I had tried to put around my flood of emotions in the last few months. Horrific rage threatened to consume me. Where was Jasper when you needed him? “No.” I hissed, the word coming out of my mouth before I had the chance to stop it.

He blinked, obviously surprised by the venom in my voice. “Please…” He was pleading now, voice cracking with emotion.

I wanted so much to listen to him – to hear him say that he did not mean all those terrible words he had uttered in the forest that fateful day, to hear that even if it were for only a day, he had truly loved me just half of how much I loved him. But I could not allow myself to have so much as a tiny ray of hope. If I were he dashed my hopes again, I’d definitely die of a broken heart.

Without thinking, I dodged past him and out of the door, trying my hardest not to let my tears fall – I could not let him see me cry.